Darker than Black: An Injury
by Silvertongue27
Summary: Hei is on a mission, but when he gets injured,there is only one person who he trusts enough to take care of him until he recovers. Sorry, I'm bad at summaries Disclamer:I don't own Darker than Black. Ignore the second season, this happens after the first.
1. Chapter 1

Hei watched from the shadows as the contractor who was his latest target gave a cursory glance around the area before entering the building in front of him. Silent as the shadows around him, Hei followed, keeping the man in his sight along with all of his surroundings.

The man in front of him was dressed in black; a standard thug's uniform, wearing a black hat along with an idiotic yet ruthless expression on his face.

_Disgusting, _thought Hei. He had seen his share of contractors, and this kind was the one that he disliked the most. _Just blindly doing what they are told, not even just for money, but for the pain they can inflict on others. _

He watched the man as he climbed the seven flights of steps up the staircase to the roof, following behind unseen and unheard, just another shadow in the darkened building.

Reaching the roof, the man glanced around nervously, clearly waiting for a second person to complete his trade off mission with. That was the second person Hei was supposed to kill tonight.

Hei moved to the side of the building's roof, waiting for the second person to arrive before he struck at both in one swoop.

Suddenly, Hei heard a gun cock behind his back. Swearing in his mind, Hei froze, turning his head slightly and preparing his wire to attack and escape.

"BK-201," said the person behind him, a well toned man wearing a suit and his hair slicked back. "It seems that our plan to catch you has been successful," he said, sounding pleased with himself.

Suddenly cursing, the man turned around, and began to stretch out, in the whole routine of a yoga practitioner.

Seizing his advantage, Hei pulled himself away and back into the shadows using his wire. Immediately, the man was behind him again, smirking despite his recent yoga session that must be his obeisance.

"That's right, BK-201," said the contractor, "I can teleport. I may have an irritating obeisance, but I can catch up with you no matter where you go".

Hei remained emotionless under his Kuro no Shinigami mask, and disappeared into the shadows again, this time continuing to move, around and around the other contractor.

He jumped into sight, sending his knifes flying towards the other man, while keeping his wire ready to pull him out of the way of a new attack any second.

The teleporting contractor saw the knives a second too late and cried out in pain when they hit his leg, causing him to crumple to the ground. Hei sent a current along his line to the knife, ending the other man's cries.

Suddenly, a rush of pain hit his chest and his leg, sending a jerk of pain running along his own body. Gritting his teeth and limping, Hei turned to face the temporarily forgotten other contractor. His eyes were red, and his whole body was glowing blue. Hei narrowed his eyes, and sent two knifes flying at him, impaling the other man in the skull before electrocuting him.

Hei collapsed, clinging to his leg, which was covered in his blood and the other contractor's. Not only did it send tingles of pain up his entire body whenever he moved, the leg itself was losing feeling quickly. Each breath that he took hurt his chest, and he felt that he could barely move.

Resting a moment against the side of a small tower on the roof, Hei considered his options. Yin was working at a shop, trying to get some extra money for herself. She had found a place at an inn to stay at, and was talking care of herself well. Hei didn't want to go there and ruin whatever repast she had found from constantly fighting and running.

There was a place where Hei himself was staying, but he knew that the real thing he needed was medical attention, and he could hardly walk into a hospital, declare himself BK-201, and hope to escape alive and free.

There was one last place Hei could think of going where he might even be able to get some medical help and a place to rest, but the last words he had spoken to the person who lived there were "The person named Li no longer exists."

Hei, using the last of his strength, swung off the roof into the black night in search of the one place he could go for help.

Misaki walked home to her apartment from a tiring day at work. She had been working twelve hour shifts, finding and fighting contractors at least twice a day. They had so many attacks that there had been barely time to write up the report on what had happened before they had a new incident.

There was only one contractor she was interested in finding, but she hadn't had much luck with that so far. They had seen signs of BK-201's activity, but they always got there to late or were simply to busy with other contractors at the time.

Misaki knew that Li– Hei was still in Tokyo. That was the one piece of information that kept her focused.

She had become close friends with Li– Hei when she had known him only as an innocent exchange student, although she supposed now that it could have all been an act by him to get police information.

_I still keep on mixing up his names too, _thought Misaki. _His name is Hei, not Li-kun._

Misaki had looked up the name Li Shengshun, and had found a record of a brother and sister, Li and Xing, who had been killed along with their parents when the boy was barely a teenager, if even that.

_You chose this life at twelve years old_, she thought. _Hei, how did you even survive?_

Entering her apartment building, Misaki walked up the two flights of stairs to her apartment, reminding herself of her friends' declarations that she would gain all of the weight she took in now when she turned thirty.

Entering her suite, Misaki walked to the kitchen and started to make herself some coffee.

Suddenly, a large clanging sound rang from her balcony. Misaki ran out to the ledge that overlooked Tokyo. Her breath caught, seeing a man wearing a ghostly white mask with thin red lips and a violet lightning bolt over one eye leaning against the railing of her balcony. Covered with specks of blood.

"Misaki," Hei whispered, and then trailed off. Misaki looked at him in shock, seeing his blood covered clothing.

"Sorry to visit like this, but do you think you could help me?" asked Hei faintly, with a touch of humor in his voice that reminded her of how he was as Li-kun.

As Misaki stared, frozen in shock, Hei collapsed to the floor, fainting, with a sigh, waking Misaki from her shock.

Tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes, Misaki hurried forward and dragged Hei into the warmth of her apartment. She leaned against the wall, and ran to grab the extra futon that she kept mostly unused for if one of her few friends decided to or needed to sleep over.

Laying it on the floor in the area between her kitchen and living room, she went to Hei and carried his limp weight over to the futon, lying him on it as gently as she could, thanking the minutes she had spent weight training to become one of the police in her mind.

As carefully as Misaki could, she pulled off his overcoat, throwing it to the side. Almost hesitantly, she pulled off his mask, a sudden intake of breath hissing at the sight of Li-kun's face behind the mask she had so often wanted to pull off.

Setting the mask to the side, Misaki pulled off Hei's shirt, wincing at the sight of the bruises and cuts on his chest. She ran to the kitchen and took a bowl of warm water and a black washcloth. Then, she found her first aid kit that she kept for emergencies in her closet, and moved back to Hei. Bending down, she carefully cleaned the blood off his chest, adding antiseptic to each cut. Feeling his chest, she could tell that one of his ribs was broken. She tried to not press hard over that area, but she felt Hei twitch with discomfort every time the cloth came close.

Misaki then tried to bandage his chest. Since he was asleep, and she didn't want to cause his rib more pain than it was surely already in, it took her nearly twenty minutes just to get the bandages around his ribs right.

Moving down to his legs, Misaki rolled up his right pant leg, the one that appeared to be covered in blood. It had two large but shallow cuts in it, and the bone appeared to be broken.

Shaking, Misaki cleaned off his leg and bandaged it. Checking Hei's forehead, she saw that he had a fever. Getting a wet, cold, washcloth, she laid it over his forehead.

Moving quickly, Misaki cleaned up her supplies and laid a quilt blanket over Hei. She sat on the couch beside Hei, and watched him, getting up every several minutes to change the cloth on his forehead.

Alone with her thoughts, Misaki watched Hei sleeping.

_He looks so peaceful, _she thought. _You wouldn't expect him to be Kuro no Shinigami. _

_What am I supposed to do now?_ Misaki wondered. _I have Kuro no Shinigami here with me now, weakened enough that I could arrest him and bring him in without a fight. _It wasn't an opportunity she would have again, but somehow, Misaki just couldn't bring herself to betray him like that.

Caught in her troublesome thoughts, she watched Hei, his breathing in a more even rhythm than it had been when she had first brought him in. She checked his forehead again, and found that his fever had broken.

Nearly crying in her relief and fatigue, Misaki collapsed to the couch, lying down in as comfortable a position she could get in, and watched him until she fell asleep, remembering the time they spent together.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Darker than Black….obviously…if I did, there would be a third season already…

I'll try to keep updating as often as I can. FINALS ARE NEXT WEEK…. Well, I hope that I survive…

Hei woke up to the bright sunlight shining in through the balcony door in Misaki's apartment that appeared to still be open. He appeared to be lying on some kind of futon in the middle of her living room. Judging from the light from the balcony, it was close to noon. Attempting to move his head, Hei lifted his head an inch off the futon, and cried out loudly, his chest feeling like it had exploded when he had moved.

His head turned slightly from when he had lifted his head, Hei saw Misaki lying on a couch beside his futon, starting to wake up from his cry of pain. Hei watched her as she woke up. There were bags under her eyes from staying up so late, presumable taking care of him.

Beginning to feel guilty, Hei watched her as she rubbed her eyes slowly, and then looked down at him.

"Good morning," said Hei, with a wry smile on his face.

"Hei…" Misaki started before getting up off the couch and kneeling beside him.

"Are you alright?" she asked, placing a hand on his forehead to check for a fever. "It looks like the fever you had last night stayed away."

"I'm as good as I can be, considering the injuries." Hei replied. "I should really be asking you I suppose though," Hei continued, with a question tone in his voice.

"I think that you broke your leg and one or two of your ribs," Misaki said. "I wrapped them both, but you won't be able to move for a while."

"Perfect," said Hei, grimacing.

"Hei?" said Misaki hesitantly.

"Yes?" he replied while relaxing into the futon again.

"What have you been doing since that day?" she asked, looking concerned, but curious too.

"Lots of things really," said Hei, considering the face that she was with the police, no matter how much he trusted her. If it came down to it, he didn't know if he could trust her not to turn him in at this second. Giving a few more details, he continued, saying "I have been doing whatever I can to bring down the Syndicate and keep myself alive."

"I see," Misaki said, looking thoughtful.

"Misaki, what exactly do you plan to do with me?" Hei asked plainly. He knew that Misaki had to be thinking about if she should turn him in like a responsible police officer would do, or him she should help him, a wanted criminal. The choice wouldn't be hard in a logical mind, but Hei knew that Misaki thought of him as a friend, and although the gap that separated them was large, Hei did trust Misaki like he trusted few others. He watched as Misaki froze, and then looked down at her hands, still tense.

"I don't know," said Misaki. "I know that I should, especially since you are injured enough that we wouldn't have to fight you. It's a perfect opportunity. Still, it just wouldn't seem fair to you." Misaki smiled slightly before saying her next words.

"Besides, even though I now know that Li-kun and BK-201 and Hei are all the same person, I still don't want to turn you in because there is still a sliver of the person that I knew as Li-kun in you. I know that much at least. At that time, you weren't just Li-kun, you was also Hei. If Li-kun was Hei, then doesn't that mean that Hei is also Li-kun" Misaki looked up at Hei thoughtfully.

"I might be wrong of course, but I don't think that I am," she added.

Hei looked at Misaki with an emotionless look on his face, thinking before he answered her last words. It was true that Li-kun was just a different aspect of his personality, perhaps the aspect that he would have grown into if Contractors had never come into being. Still, Hei wasn't sure that he should allow Misaki to know that.

He had told her that Li had died the last time they had met for only one reason truly: To keep Misaki safe. There were side motives of course, and he had originally tried to pass them off as his reason to keep Misaki out of his life, but he knew that the true reason was to keep her safe from the Syndicate and the rest of the mess that was laid over his shoulders.

Hei replied with his eyes set forward, looking into the distance, trying to keep as much emotion as he could out of his face, but he could tell that some of his true emotions came out in his voice.

"I won't deny what you are saying. Li was partially me. However, he wasn't completely me either. I did tend to allow more of myself into Li when I talked to you, as much as I could anyway." Hei looked away.

"It's not like I want to get turned in, but are you sure that you would want me hanging around in your rooms while I recovered?" Hei smiled weakly. "I'm not exactly in a good condition right now. These bandages seem to be working well, but they will still need attention every once in a while. I actually do have my own place to stay, not that I was strong enough to get there last night. I can pay for my own food and any other expenses." Hei grinned widely at his last words. "You probably still remember how much food I need."

Turning more serious, Hei looked at Misaki in the eyes. "Most people don't know me as Hei, and do know me as Li-kun, so I could technically go out, but the Syndicate has both eyes and ears everywhere. Even just my being here puts you in danger." Still looking Misaki in the eyes, Hei waited for her response, with more tension in his mind about what she would say then he would ever admit, even to himself.

Misaki looked back at Hei, thinking carefully about his last words. He was right about everything that he had just said. She would also have trouble concealing Hei's living at her house from Saito and the others at work. On the other hand, she was oddly reluctant to turn him in, or to actually make Hei leave.

"Hei," she said slowly.

"Yes Misaki?" replied Hei, still looking directly in her eyes, seeming to look into her soul.

"I want you to stay here. We can work out the problems later, but for now at least, you have to stay. I don't really mind the Syndicate coming after you, because that is just another opportunity for me to find them and defeat them for once." "Besides," Misaki continued, smiling, "I eat almost as much as you do, so I know that I can deal with you eating habits. It can just be a reason for me to go out and get fast food more often."

Misaki watched as Hei relaxed into the makeshift bed she had made for him, almost visibly, at her words. He had clearly been worried about what she was going to say, no matter how relaxed he tried to act about it for her.

Suddenly, she saw Hei wince as she heard a blatantly loud growling noise coming from his stomach.

Misaki got up and smiled brightly at the familiar sound, glad to know that at least that part of Li wasn't a lie. "So, Hei, what do you want for lunch? I'm pretty sure that we missed breakfast. We can always order too of course, so feel free to ask for whatever you want for breakfast. You must be really hungry too, seeing as you were so badly injured, and you eat a lot even without being injured. Is there anything that you really want?"

"Ramen," said Hei, smiling back at her. "Lots of it. Judging by how much I usually get, I probably need thirty bowls at least. If I am still hungry after that, then I will get some rice balls as well. Maybe some salad too."

"Sure," said Misaki. "I can't stay and eat with you today because I have work, but I will have them send the food up for you. Actually, today we were going to review our files on you, not that it was going to do much good I suppose," Misaki said thoughtfully.

"Well then Misaki, thank you," said Hei. "I will never be able to repay you for what you did last night and what you are going to do. I truly am sorry to have to make you deal with me, especially now that you know that I am BK-201."

Shifting uncomfortable on the futon, Hei said "Misaki, before you leave would you mind helping me up so I can sit? I don't think that I've ever lain down this long before."

Misaki bent down to help him, relieved to see that he at least felt good enough to want to sit up, although she did suspect that he simply didn't want to be lying down. After she helped him up, she went to get changed, and then ran out of her apartment after a quick goodbye to Hei and ordering his food. If things went according to plan, then Hei would be able to recover without anybody being in danger. With these thoughts in mind, Misaki walked towards the police station, in a good mood for what seemed to be the first time in a while.


End file.
